A business entity attempts to train its workers to perform their assigned tasks with optimal efficiency, speed and safety. The objective is to achieve optimal worker performance levels as rapidly and efficiently as possible. Each worker's knowledge, skill and judgment contribute to the safety of the workplace. In general, the greater the number of less skilled and less experienced workers in the workplace, the greater the chance for costly mistakes and workplace accidents.
It is well known that worker training is optimized by providing on-the-job support and supervision. There is a continuing need to improve worker access to support and supervision. Technology-based jobs are becoming increasingly more complex. In addition, rapid job turnover has caused even skilled workers to have to learn new, complex jobs quickly and also to learn quickly how to perform the jobs well.
In certain work environments, such as in production or regulated industries, workers need to be trained to perform repetitive, complex and structured (“RCS”) tasks. Some examples of RCS tasks include manufacturing chemicals, performing regulated work such as governmental regulation, e.g., Environmental Protection Agency, directed jobs, setting up and conducting clinical studies, help desk staff, etc.
Often, a worker must understand the tasks to be performed and the purposes of each task to complete a work project successfully and efficiently. In such circumstances, simply providing a worker with a checklist of tasks to be performed is inadequate. Also, the success of worker training may depend on whether adequate support is available to the worker on-demand, for example, as the worker begins to perform or performs a required task.
Various computer assisted teaching tools are available to provide a worker with information and guidance as to how work tasks should be performed. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,823,781, 5,655,086, 5,864,480 and 6,047,261, incorporated by reference herein. Although these computer-based tools provide the worker with training and education, they do not guide the worker as to how and why to perform each task at the time the task is to be performed. Further, the tools do not permit the worker to receive supervisory input in the course of performing a series of work tasks, such as, for example, when performing one or more of a series of required tasks.
It is advantageous that a worker receive supervisory input, especially in the course of performing assigned tasks, to achieve the full benefits of mentoring. Mentoring, when properly implemented, provides a worker, in addition to training and education in the required tasks to be performed, with a supervisor's judgment and decision-making input as the worker performs the required tasks. In addition, it is also advantageous if the supervisor can learn of the worker's success or failure in completing each task and how such success or failure relates to the entire work project.
Many business entities encounter great difficulty in implementing mentoring in today's workplace. Often, there is a significant geographic distance separating the supervisor from the worker. Also, an entity might not always have sufficient personnel time or funds available to provide a supervisor who acts as a mentor for those less skilled in a given job. Therefore, lesser skilled workers are more likely to make errors that can be dangerous to themselves and others. Furthermore, without adequate mentoring, substantial time is lost in training workers to attain satisfactory and safe levels of quality performance. Also, productivity declines, which often causes financial losses to a business entity, and potentially unsafe conditions continue to arise.
Therefore, there exists a need for method and system for computer assisted performance support which provides, with relative ease and at minimal expense, that a worker can receive education, training and supervisory input while the worker is performing a directed task and that the directed tasks to be performed by the worker can be monitored and controlled.